Comments on: Fraudulent Alphas http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl/fraudulent-alphas/ "The extra-ordinary lies within the curve of normality" Thu, 10 Jan 2019 23:23:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2 By: Rense Nieuwenhuis http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl/fraudulent-alphas/comment-page-1/#comment-4344 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:07:36 +0000 http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl/?p=1487#comment-4344 Hi Martin,

the use of Cronbach’s Alpha was discussed specifically in this interview, but indeed: the techniques you mention are commonly used. Specific patterns emerge in fake data, while these patterns are highly unlikely in ‘real’ data.

Even more: in the case of the study on ‘meat-eating bastards’ (the data of which were ‘obtained’ by the same fraudulent social-psychologist) was uncovered to be fake with a very similar technique. Much more simple, though: a statistician noticed in the presented table that the marginal distribution of observations was logically impossible given the small number of observations.

]]> By: Martin Holterman http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl/fraudulent-alphas/comment-page-1/#comment-4343 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:56:52 +0000 http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl/?p=1487#comment-4343 Actually, I suspect they ran a statistical analysis on the actual digits that showed up. At least, that’s what forensic accountants and suchlike normally do. That’s how they proved that Greece was cooking the books, and that Belgium was the most likely other Eurozone country to be doing the same.

http://economicsintelligence.com/2011/07/28/how-an-arcane-statistical-law-could-have-prevented-the-greek-disaster/

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